How Green are our Green Celebrities? It is all a question of give and take!

Demand for green energy workers to skyrocket in Canada

New nationwide project helps those looking to connect with training programs

By WorkCabin.ca Staff

Looking for one of Canada's hottest job markets? Look at the earth, wind and sun.

As millions of students return to classrooms across Canada, thousands are doing something powerful: They're giving their career aspirations a real jolt at a growing number of post-secondary institutions now offering training in sustainable energy programs. These students are the next crop of soon-to-be skilled workers for the country's exploding green energy industries.

When they graduate they will enjoy something not every grad can boast: a virtual guarenteed job and endless possibilities for growth.

But there's a dilemma: Canada needs even more of these workers today, tomorrow and in the future to help the industry meet its rapid expansion.

In wind energy alone, the demand for workers will skyrocket. Canada presently has about 2,000 megawatts -- enough to power 560,000 homes -- of wind power and 3,000 Canadians employed, but that's expected to reach more than 12,000 megawatts by 2016.

Geothermal energy (using ground temperatures to heat and cool homes) is also booming. It is estimated that there are more than 40,000 units -- mostly home-based units -- installed across Canada. In Manitoba, ranked second in the country behind Quebec for geothermal installations, the province's hydro utility estimates that geothermal units have provided energy savings that have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 35,000 tonnes annually -- the equivalent of taking 10,000 cars off the road. If you need more evidence that geothermal is hot, consider this: Google is investing $10 million in the technology in the U.S. where more than 100 geothermal power plants are either under construction or planned during the next several years.

Likewise, solar power is growing hotter too in Canada. New solar farms are pointing skyward to harvest natural energy, and a major breakthrough by a British Columbia-based company promises to make solar power even more affordable. Day4Energy has developed technology that cuts the cost of solar power by 25 per cent. It's a huge step for the industry and will bring solar power closer to many homeowners who previously ballked at the cost.

With so many sectors soaring, it's not hard to see why there's a growing need for workers for research and development, manufacturing, engineering, technicians, installation, maintenance and more.

Knowing where to turn for training has, until now, been more or less a find-out-for-yourself process. A new nationwide project, Clean Energy Classrooms (www.cleanenergyclassrooms.ca) sponsored by the British Columbia Sustainable Energy Association, green energy promotions and recruiting firm Renewable Recruits, the B.C. government, colleges and other partners, is changing that in a big way.

"From Vancouver Island to Prince Edward Island, this growing industry needs more trained and capable employees," says Randyn Seibold, project manager for Clean Energy Classrooms. "Facilitating access to Canada's clean energy programs will ensure that sustainable energy is on the students' radars when making their career training decisions."

Clean Energy Classrooms is a one-stop online directory for information and links to training options through post-secondary, industry, native and non-profit programs. A print version of the project will be distributed to secondary schools, employment centres and other locations this fall.

The initiative is already winning rave reviews from post-secondary institutions which offer programs in sustainable energy.

"The Clean Energy Classrooms project provides a way for our department to leverage scarce marketing resources to reach the audience that would be most interested in our program," says Eric Smiley, an instructor in the green building and renewable energy technician program at Vancouver Island University.

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Taking It Slow

By Alternative Channel's Youth Contributor Cody Larocque

Life moves at an incredible pace in our modern world, information and ideas can travel across the world in a matter of seconds. With all this speed and instantaneous reaction to everything in our day where and when do we take the time to reflect and think about the days happenings? Traditionally, the dinner table was such a place where family would meet and discuss, but with the advent of a fast food society and fast living one organization aims to correct this direction as well as protect the planets biodiversity and adhere to the tenants of fair trade.

Slow Food International believes that everyone has the right to good, clean and fair food, as well as the pleasure that goes with it. Slow Food, believes whole heartedly that food should taste good, be organically grown there fore not harming human, animal and plant biodiversity. It also believes that food producers should be paid fairly for their hard work. Not wishing to be called consumers, they have taken the name of co-producers, because they both understand and support where there food comes from. The organization started in 1986 in Bra Italy, home of the organizations founder Carl Petrini, due to his home town’s association with wine production, white truffles, beef and fine cheeses which coupled with Italy’s love of fine food.

Slow Food has also started several other foundations which adhere to their core beliefs, most notably are the Slow Food foundation for biodiversity, the ark of taste which aims to protect artisan foods, animal and plant breeds which risk extinction due to marginalization and loss of public interest. Slow food also holds large gatherings such as, Presidia which help to connect local and artisan food producers to accessible and public markets and lastly Terra Madre which is a world meeting of food communities, for example Cheese producers from France would meet and discuss with cheese makers from Quebec, Canada. Slow food also believes that in sustainable farming and works to set up food communities in such a way. While not opposed to research by universities in genetically modified organisms (GMO) they believe that GMOs require accurate labelling because everyone has the right to choose what they ingest and choose to support by doing so.

The organization does not only concern itself with eco-gastronomy but at a larger scale wants to change the way we think about life. The Slow Food manifesto, professes that we have lost touch with what it truly means to be a Human being, and that our speed will kill us eventually. The fast life, which is equated to a virus, will and is not only disrupting our lives but also destroying our planet through the obsession with efficiency and over productive behaviour. It is certainly and attractive option given the state of modern food production and the vast number of disease scare associated with the modern food industry. Like Ghandi said “there is more to life than just increasing its speed” So here’s to the organization which took the slow and calm snail as its symbol.

For more information please visit Slow Food.

Photo courtesy of: www.freefoto.com.

Lessons my father taught me are worth sharing

 By David Suzuki and Faisal Moola

Now in the seventh decade of my life, I look back at the world of my childhood, with its shared phone lines, ice boxes, radio soap operas, and no television, and it seems like an ancient, lost civilization. And yet the ideas and values I learned as a child seem every bit as important for today’s youth, for whom rappers, billionaires, and movie stars are role models.

When I was a boy, my father was a bigger-than-life figure, a wonderful storyteller who enchanted people with his outgoing personality. He was my hero. He took me camping and fishing and instilled in me a love of nature and the outdoors. When he came home from work, he always asked me what I had learned in school, and as I recounted my lessons, he seemed genuinely interested, often amplifying my information or correcting me. I loved those sessions, and I now realize that he was reinforcing my education by making me recount what I had learned.

Dad was my biggest booster, but he was also my harshest critic. When I began in television, he followed everything I did. More than once when he couldn’t follow my narrative, he would call and bawl me out: “If I can’t understand what you are saying, how do you expect someone who doesn’t know you at all to follow your ideas?” To this day, I think of my father as my audience whenever I prepare a script or write a book.

My mother was the rock-solid foundation of the family. She was the first up in the morning and the last to bed at night, but unlike Dad, she did it quietly. I only understood how important she was as she developed Alzheimer’s disease and I watched Dad struggle to fill her shoes. I begged him to allow me to hire help for him, but he declined. “She gave her all for me,” he said, “and it’s my turn to pay her back.”

Both of my parents are now dead, and in my own dotage, I think about the important lessons I want to pass on to my children and grandchildren – and I realize they are the same lessons I got from Dad. I can’t help thinking they are not quaint ideas from the past but very modern ones that we need desperately today.

“Respect your elders,” he told me.

“But Dad,” I protested, “Mr. Saita is a fool.”

“David,” Dad remonstrated, “he has lived a long life and has had experiences and thought about a lot of things you haven’t. I know he seems opinionated and stupid, but if you listen, even he can teach you something.”

“To do well in Canada as a Japanese-Canadian,” he said, “you have to work 10 times harder, you must be able to get up and speak extemporaneously, and you must be able to dance.” Fortunately, hard work was never an obstacle for me and I entered oratorical contests for which Dad drilled me in the art of public speaking. I never understood the dancing part and was not successful in that area.

“Whatever you do, do it with gusto. Don’t do it in a sloppy, half-hearted way but enthusiastically, whether it’s scrubbing the floors, picking cherries, or playing basketball. That’s how you get the most out of life.”

“We all need money for the necessities in life, but you don’t run after it as if money makes you a bigger or better man. If someone flashes his fancy new clothes or big car, pity him, because he has gone down the wrong road.”

“Live within your means.” This important lesson is embodied in the familiar expression “Save some for a rainy day.”

“You must stand up for what you believe in, but be prepared for people to be angry and to disagree. If you want to be liked by everyone, then you will stand for nothing.”

“You are what you do, not what you say.” Kids have a different way of saying this in their taunt, “All talk and no action.”
My mother also taught me useful homilies like “Always clean up your own mess,” “Be kind to animals,” and “Share; don’t be greedy.”

Today’s youth are bombarded with news about the antics of Lindsay Lohan, Amy Winehouse, and Jay-Z, and look to them for inspiration, but that’s all the more reason to listen to the words of our elders.

Take David Suzuki’s Nature Challenge and learn more at davidsuzuki.org.

Justice for All

By Alternative Channel’s Youth Contributor Cody Larocque

 

With global awareness on the rise concerning environmental sustainability and the protection of natural resources, one question remains; how do we ensure the fair and equal distribution of our planets resources to the entire world community? The environmental justice movement, which was born in 1982 in the United States, arose originally to combat the unfair distribution of environmental burdens (pollution, waste and industrial by-products, ect…) in both low income and minority neighbourhoods. The movement also seeks to ensure fair access to environmental goods such as clean air, nutritious food and green space.

The culprit of most environmental injustices is due whole heartedly to the commoditization of land, water, air and every natural resource in-between. Along with these resources becoming sources of capital, the negligent apathy of large corporations hoping to cut costs and grab a quick buck is another leading cause of Environmental Injustice. The overriding philosophy behind Environmental Justice is that the earth is every human’s home and that it is all of our responsibility to protect her from our species destructive habits whether we are wealthy or poor. The movement also seeks to look beyond the face value of many environmental issues , that is to say that the movement looks at both the destruction or danger that is or may be caused to nature, but it takes it a step farther by seeking to reconcile the human victims of wilderness pollution, natural disasters and hoarded resources.

Environmental Justice, an underdog in the large arena of global organizations is due to the fact that it is relatively unknown. The organization does not have an overruling body of government; most of its ideologies are formed in summits or forums, which happen when needed not annually. The movement has come under some backlash due to its slight shift away from general environmentalism towards human rights and the natural world, but this same criticism has been used to commend it as a link between social and environmental issues.

Society today is more concerned with preserving nature than twenty years earlier and those knowledgeable about what they can do to help grow every day. However as populations grow a new sense of global awareness, new problems arise that may not always be as black and white as the classical environmental issues of endangered species, recycling and energy consumption.

For more info please visit: http://www.ejnet.org/ej/ For more information please visit Environmental Justice website.

Photo: thorinside, courtesy of Flickr.com.

13,000 kilometres to go for eco-marathoners!

By WorkCabin.ca Staff

Most of us would never dream of -- let alone be capable -- of running a marathon. Imagine running a marathon a day for a year across cities and towns in Canada and the United States. That's exactly what two Canadians are doing to raise awareness about climate change.

Actor Matt Hill, a seven-time Ironman competitor, and national speaker Stephanie Tait have run 5,000 kilometres in their odyssey, and they still have another 13,000 kilometres to go. They're running to raise $1 million seed money for a foundation that will launch Run For One Planet (www.runforoneplanet.com) marathons across North America. But their run is about even more. They're aiming to inspire one million people to commit to environmental actions that help our planet.

"One of the most amazing parts of this journey is meeting truly exceptional human beings who welcome us into their towns, business, homes, and hearts, eager to support us in all we seek to do out here," writes Stephanie on her blog.

Aside from Tait missing a couple of days of running due to tendinitis in western Canada, the pair have met their mission of daily marathons. While Tait was recuperating from her brief injury, Hill ran double duty. It was the legacy left by Terry Fox that kept Hill running strong, despite the aches and pains in his legs and feet.

"(Terry) had to overcome 10 times what I was feeling on my last pull," writes Hill. "Every single step he took must have hurt like hell and still, he moved forward. He changed my life as a 10-year-old cheering him on and inspired me to follow my own personal run journey because of his unwillingness to quit. This one is for Terry. I’ll complete today, tomorrow and every single day until I finish next year back in Vancouver. You showed us all what it takes to get it done. I’m proud to be a Canadian from B.C. who calls Vancouver home."

So far Hill and Tait have raised $44,000 and 1,100 actions for Earth have been registered. Actions include eating organic foods, compost, use green cleaners, don't leave your car idling, harvest rainwater, eliminate plastic bags, and other earth-friendly initiatives.

The next stops for Hill and Tait include New Brunswick (Sept. 6), Prince Edward Island (Sept. 20-21) Newfoundland (Oct. 1-2) and Nova Scotia (Sept. 22-28 and Oct. 5-13). After that, they leave Canadian soil and enter the United States for the final leg on their way back to British Columbia.

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Our perceptual filters shape the world!

If presented with the autopsied brains of a diverse array of people, no expert would be able to distinguish from the brains’ anatomy or neurocircuitry the gender, religion, or socio-economic class of the cadavers. Because we are members of one species, our brains, neurons, and sensory organs are similar in structure and chemistry. But if you were to ask both men and women about love and family, Israelis and Palestinians about Gaza, Catholics and Protestants in Belfast about British occupation, Republicans and Democrats about Karl Rove, and Shia, Sunni, and Kurds about U.S. troops, you’d think the respondents came from different planets.

What this demonstrates is that we learn to see the world through perceptual lenses formed by heredity, upbringing, personal experiences, religion, socio-economic differences, and so on. Even though we detect our surroundings in the same way through eyes, ears, nose, skin, and tongue, our brains actively filter that incoming information so that it “makes sense” according to our individual values and beliefs. This creates huge dissonance between fossil-fuel executives, environmentalists, and politicians when we discuss an issue like climate change.

I was reminded of how acutely our values affect our ability to see things when I accompanied ethnobotanist Wade Davis to a remote village at the foot of a large mountain in Peru. Wade told me that the villagers regard that mountain as an “Apu” or god and believe that as long as it casts its shadow on the community, it will shape their lives.

«Compare the way a child in this village treats that mountain with a Canadian kid in the Rockies who is taught a mountain is full of gold and other valuable minerals» Wade said. The way we perceive the world shapes the way we treat it.

I have thought of Wade’s story often. How differently we would behave if we thought of a forest as a sacred grove instead of timber and pulp, of a river as the veins of the land rather than a source of irrigation or power, of soil as a complex community of organisms and not dirt, of other species as our evolutionary kin rather than resources, of our house as our home instead of property. Most of our battles over environmental issues revolve around the differences in how we perceive and define the problem. While filming a special program on forestry for The Nature of Things in the 1990s, we arranged to interview loggers working in a cut block near Ucluelet on Vancouver Island. When we arrived and set up the camera, the loggers came out of the forest and began to cuss me out as an environmentalist who was threatening their jobs.

The confrontation made for good television, but I was frustrated at our inability to find common ground. Finally I told them, “I worked as a carpenter for eight years, and to this day, I love working with wood. No environmentalist I know is against logging. We just want to be sure that your children and grandchildren will be able to log forests as rich as the ones you’re working in now.” Immediately, one of the men replied that he’d never let his kids to go into logging. “There won’t be any trees left!” he said. And there it was. Those men knew that they were cutting the trees down in a way that ensured there would be no harvestable timber for future generations of loggers, but they saw the trees as the way to put food on the table day after day and make the house and car payments at the end of the month.

How can we resolve such differences in perspective? I don’t know, but I am sure that the challenge has to do with what’s locked inside our skulls. I have spent more than 40 years trying to use the electronic media to inform and educate, but I continue to be flabbergasted by the strength of those perceptual filters.

We have to find ways of overcoming those blocks so that we can begin to agree on some basic principles. We are not outside or on top of the web of living things; we are deeply embedded in and utterly dependent on it for our survival and well-being. Without that understanding, we will continue on our destructive rampage.

Take David Suzuki’s Nature Challenge and learn more at davidsuzuki.org.

An expedition to the local food market can be an enjoyable experience. Support your local producers!

By Our Contributor Aimée Lutkin

Recently I checked out the New Amsterdam Market on a sunny day that quickly gave into monsoon weather. The market is full of locally grown food and the people who process it and sell it. Their goal is to eventually move the market into the Tin Building and the New Market Building, previous home of the Fulton Fish Market. Right now they're under the FDR drive.

Writing that made me think of another market I used to visit when I was living in Paris that set itself up under the Metro. Walking through it sometimes felt like you could pick your feet up off the ground and be carried onward by the swell of people. The food was very very cheap and I have no idea where it came from. The placement of the New Amsterdam Market is only similar in that it's under a large bridge-like structure meant for transport. It's also a stone's throw from the South Street Sea Port which means lots of tourists which is great for sales (sometimes-tourists probably aren't so interested in fresh veggies and meat they can't cook) but maybe not the place to attract real New Yorkers in a residential neighborhood. On Sundays in Paris everybody and their Maman was at that market. Here, there was a crowd but I wondered who was representin'.

First of all it was blazing hot. So I went over to the People's Popsicle where I was 'greeted' by an array of beautiful fresh-faced young lads and lasses with charming British accents who seemed to be selling popsicles pretty much on a lark. All four of them served every customer, taking out the individually frozen pop, dipping it's plastic case into a mason jar of warmish water, then working it in their hand until it could be eased out of its molding. I asked if this was their first time ever selling popsicles and they admitted that yes, this was the dry run-through.

An hour later when I got my Blue Velvet pop (blueberries, yogurt and honey) I hoped it would be worth the wait and $4. I know, $4. Kind of outrageous but I would never have described a popsicle as filling before. Seriously, it was practically a meal.

Refreshed, I continued on and got a big score-the last head of purple cauliflower! If you eat something purple made of synthetic chemicals it's probably bad for you. But any opportunity to eat colorful vegetables should be taken. It pleases the eye and the body!

I also bought some fancy Gruyere cheese which was actually, it turned out, from Pennsylvania, being distributed by White Dog Community Enterprises which is a non-profit that tries to help farmers hook up with local wholesalers. Had I read the fine print I may have on principal tried to find the New York State equivalent but the cheese lady had already started hacking away and seemed a bit flustered. I didn't want her to stab me and ruin all her lovely cheese with blood. Anyway, I spend a fair amount of time in the Poconos. Pennsylvania cannot support its economy with scented candles alone! (The candle store in our hamlet burned down)

It would have been pretty easy to fill up for free, since as one excited shopper exclaimed when I asked if she knew of an ATM around, "Free samples! FREE SAMPLES!". Yes, lots of those, cheese and bread in particular. The bread isles were a little lonely looking, with the heat and colorful competition all around no one wanted a slice. Atkins, what hast thou wrought??

But speaking of eating for free one of the most popular stands was Wild Foods, headed by Nova Kim and Les Hook, two foragers from Vermont. They go into the forest and come out both full and not horribly dead. Verrrry curious, I bobbed along the perimeter of the crowd to see what they might have-air? Grubs? Actually, lots of little bags fulled of funny roots and furry leaves with photocopied recipes stapled to them. They also had several photocopied DIY books with all the ways you can eat from the side of a road and not kill yourself. There were even little laminated spore grids that look like Sudoku puzzles that you somehow use to not eat poison mushrooms...I don't know, I'm not a doctor.

Anyway as soon as I picked one up Nova Kim herself leaped on me. She and her fam live off the grid which I would guess gets lonely. She told me several interesting facts:

There are about 2,600 identified mushrooms in the U.S. and only 13 or 14 will kill you or make you wish you was dead. I like those odds!

If you eat a poison mushroom, consider yourself lucky it's not Hemlock. Hemlock runs through your circulatory system, so as you struggle to walk for first aid you're basically helping it kill you, whereas with a mushroom you'll make it to a hospital most of the time.

Hemlock and Wild Chervil, an edible plant, look much alike.

She and few others are trying to set up a Wild Food Gatherers Guild and get more and more people gathering food and certified to teach what's edible and what definitely isn't. Talk about taking personal responsibility for what you eat- according to Nova the most important thing is knowing your own environment and trusting your own expertise. Um, I know what crab grass looks like...

Here's a place to learn about that (it's pretty much as cool as martial arts): Wildgourmetfood.com.

And I must say a much nicer looking website than I would have ever anticipated. So eventually I came home and made a great meal of steamed cauliflower with pecans, honey, garlic, and grated Gruyere. Jealous?

You're jealous!

For more info on the New Amsterdam Market go to: newamsterdammarket.org.

One of Canada’s greatest reforestation projects rooted in rural Ontario town

By WorkCabin.ca Staff

ST. WILLIAMS, ON -- It’s one of the greatest stories in Canadian reforestation history. A small rural region in southern Ontario, practically deforested by early pioneers, is now one of the province's natural jewels.

One hundred years after it was built in 1908, the impact of the St. Williams Forestry Station, Canada's first tree nursery, is clear to see. When you arrive at the forestry station just north of the Lake Erie shoreline, giant pines and Carolinian tree species dominate the forests. It's a scene that immediately leaves one in awe. Forests of this kind are almost non-existent in southern Ontario, where population growth and subdivisions are wiping out many natural areas. But Norfolk County and St. Williams aren't like other areas. Despite being less than two hours from Toronto, the area has become a model for restoring forests previously lost to human destruction.

If you’re lucky, you might catch a glimpse of the rare Acadian flycatcher, hooded warbler, eastern hognosed snake or black rat snake. It’s a vastly different from more than 150 years ago when parts of Norfolk County, including St. Williams, were transformed into a virtual sandplain desert. Beginning in the late 18th century newly arrived pioneers clear-cut the land for settlements and the lumber industry. Images from the era show such severe erosion that mammoth roots appear completely exposed, resting directly on top of the sand.

Realizing the blight created on the landscape by clear-cutting, wind erosion and drought, the provincial government opened the forestry station in 1908 in St. Williams. The goal was for the station to help reforest vast tracts of southern Ontario. In its first season, more than 300,000 seedlings were planted in St. Williams.

In Norfolk County, designated as the Forestry Capital of Canada, the transformation has been dramatic. The region now boasts about 30 per cent forest cover making it the largest forested region in southern Ontario. What’s even more important is the region is home to Canada’s largest remaining tract of Carolinian forest, a unique ecosystem that thrives because of a warmer climate. Some tree species such as magnolia and sassafrass, more common in North and South Carolina, thrive in this Ontario zone. Today, more than 40 per cent of Canada’s endangered and threatened species live in the Carolinian zone. The forest is now one of the country’s most threatened habitats.

Today the forestry station is no longer a provincially-run operation. It was privatized in 1998 and is now owned by ForestCare. The station remains one of North America's largest producers of tree seedlings, growing more than 25 million annually. The station is also now home to an interpretative centre featuring historical displays and artifacts detailing the history of reforesting the region, as well as nature trails through original tree plantations. The site is also part of the newly created St. Williams Conservation Reserve, a protected area encompassing 1,000 hectares.

In St. Williams, the landscape today shows that damage caused by humans can be corrected. In this case, it took almost 100 years. Perhaps nowhere else in Canada is a there a similar success story.

It's here, in this little village, only hours from sprawling major cities where woodlots disappear everyday, that big lessons can be learned about restoring habitat.

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New science looks at big picture for the future!

If we want to protect an endangered animal such as the woodland caribou, we have to do more than just study the animal in isolation. We must understand how it interacts with its total environment, including its habitat and other animals, as well as humans. We must then try to determine the best possible conditions for it to live in healthy numbers and study the threats that could undermine its persistence. It’s no different with humans, except that the problems we have created for ourselves – on a global scale – are even more complex.

Sometimes it seems that science is inadequate to address the myriad problems of pollution, global warming, population growth, biodiversity loss, changing ocean conditions, and so on.

Scientists don’t always take a big-picture approach. Applied science, for example, is often focused on knowledge for a specific need or to solve a practical problem, such as the invention of a new technology. The science may delve into the mechanics of the technology with little regard for its social implications. Basic or “pure” science, on the other hand, is aimed at gaining an understanding of a phenomenon or process, sometimes without considering its practical application. While both areas are valuable to society, neither alone attempts to tackle that greatest of human experiments in its entirety: our own survival!

A branch of science that has emerged over the past two decades is attempting to encompass both fundamental understanding and practical applications with a fascinating goal: to learn the degree to which humans are living in harmony with their environment and how they can continue to do so over the long term. Unlike many specialized scientific fields that might interest only a few people, this one ought to interest everyone!

Industrial society has had an enormous impact on natural ecosystems, to the point that very little of nature remains untrammeled by the human footprint. Sustainability science helps identify potential “planetary boundaries” such as the world’s available “biocapacity” compared with humanity’s collective “ecological footprint”. In short, it helps us better understand the complex challenges we face.

The terms sustainability and sustainable development get tossed around a lot, and it’s often difficult to know exactly what they mean. The most commonly cited definition is from the UN World Commission on Environment and Development, which defines sustainable development as ‘‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’’

Part of the difficulty is that some environmental problems are so complex and much of the science to date has addressed only fragments – dealing with one problem at a time. But the problems and their solutions are interrelated and must be looked at from a larger perspective. This is the realm of sustainability science.

As with our caribou scenario, we must first look at the scientific conditions necessary for sustainability and then look “back” to the present day, studying options for getting there. In some ways, this is opposite to the kind of forecasting that is often used in science. The U.S. National Research Council characterizes the study as a way to improve our capacity to live on the earth in a way that will “meet the needs of a much larger but stabilizing human population, … sustain the life support systems of the planet, and … substantially reduce hunger and poverty.”

That’s a pretty tall order. As the National Academy of Sciences points out, some issues to be resolved include improving access to clean water, developing cleaner energy and manufacturing systems, reducing the impact of pollution on human health, enhancing agricultural production and food security, creating more livable urban environments, and reducing poverty.

This branch of science is gaining respect in academic circles worldwide, but it’s such an important field that it should be part of science programs in all schools. In a world that is expected to reach a population of 10 billion, it’s important for science to consider how we are to survive and live in harmony with the natural systems that we are a part of and therefore depend upon. It’s a huge task that requires a broad vision. As more people – not just scientists – begin to understand the science and the complexity of the problems, and to design lasting solutions, we will start to see a brighter, more sustainable future.

Take David Suzuki’s Nature Challenge and learn more at davidsuzuki.org.